What happiness is made of
Game of Thrones AU
GoT Masterlist
Summary: King's Landing is receiving people of all corners of Westeros to celebrate the wedding anniversary of Amos Bolton and the Queen Heavenerys Targaryen. Among them, the members of the House Stark and Tyrell. || The elusive wolf of Winterfell and the rose of Highgarden during a tourney that promises more than what they originally thought.
Warnings: None. || This story doesn't follow canon events of any type nor will be. || Most characters here are my OCs or my mutuals OCs.
Words: 1.7k || Amos Bolton belongs to @call-sign-shark and Lucilla Bolton to @mischievouslittlecreature
What do you think happiness is made of? A summer sunset? A cat purring? The smell of rain? A kiss under the stars? Maybe all those. But for James Stark happiness was the moment his blue eyes found the figure of Rose Tyrell smiling at him from the distance, because it was the moment he believed happiness existed.
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The Tourney at King's Landing organised by Amos Bolton to celebrate the wedding anniversary between him and Queen Heavenerys, reunited all Westeros in those three days were it was expected to be full of joy, gluttony and lust, disguised as a show to demonstrate the power that the seven Great Houses had.
"Wolf! You came!" exclaimed Amos Bolton with a big smile, approaching his friend when the committee coming from the North, finally arrived at the Capital. The Stark sigils flying with the wind, while a long line of soldiers wearing dark uniforms caused more than one to turn their heads to see them. The Starks were, after all, something to admire.
The three brothers wearing heavy cloaks that weren't appropriate for the warm weather in the south, dismounted their horses with elegance and they were received with courtesy by lord Bolton. But of all them, James Stark was the one with whom Amos Bolton had the most special bond. He respected the eldest one Jared, the Lord and Ruler of the North now that their father was incapacitated to make decisions about anything in his life, and he was cordial towards the youngest one, Jay with whom he barely spoke more than three words. But James Stark was different. For some reason both personalities completely opposite one from the other, fit perfectly well.
"Amos, it's good to see you again," James said. "I did come, yes."
"Thought you wanted to stay in Winterfell hiding from the world."
"That's what I wanted to do, but my brothers insisted."
"Just because your brothers insisted? Not to celebrate my wedding anniversary? I'm profoundly offended," he said pretending to be mad, but he was smiling. Amos put a hand on his shoulder "I organised all this for us, for her, and it'll be great! So, I'm glad you're here despite I know you want to return to Winterfell as soon as possible. Will you be part of the joust?"
"No, I don't think so. Jared will, he talked about it all way here. And thanks for the invitation, I'm glad I decided to come, too."
A group of girls passed by them, giggling loudly and making eye contact in a very flirtatious way. Amos smirked.
"There are plenty of these," he said "and the fact that the three of you are single, it's just a very tempting addition."
"I'm not interested."
"I know. But get used to it because, my dear friend, these days will be like that. Winning the heart of a Stark it's like winning the major prize."
In an attempt to change the subject, James asked his friends about those who was already there.
"The rest of my family," he said "even the undesirable ones and the Tullys arrived earlier yesterday. Some lesser houses did it last night. The first ones to be here were the Lannister and we expect the rest, like Martell, tonight and tomorrow morning."
"Everyone is truly here," James replied and his friend nodded.
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"I will beat them!" the voice of Lewis Tyrell filled the carriage where him and his two eldest siblings were.
"You can't even beat your own sparring," Samwell replied, rolling his eyes. "These are men not kids. Men that could eat you alive if you gave them the chance."
"You don't need to be so graphic, Sam" their sister, and the eldest of the three Tyrell children, said "he's just saying. He's not stupid."
"He's stupid if he thinks he can win against them."
"And so are you if you think he's talking seriously. Or if you think papa will allow it, honestly, Sam..."
"Thanks, Rosie," Lewis said and then added looking at his brother "as far as I am concerned, I only have one sibling and it's her."
Living with brothers wasn't easy, but Rose knew she could never trade her daily doses of them annoying her for anything.
While her brothers kept fighting, she looked through the window. Some years passed since she visited King's Landing. Last time she was there Heavenerys was still a princess and not the Queen, so, it'd been a while. She hoped to see her, even when her duties now were different from years ago. Rose remembered very well how kind was the princess with her and her family. And the dragons, oh hell, she did remember that night very well. It was the first and only time she managed to touch one briefly because the Queen ordered him to stay still. It was, no doubt, the most exciting experience until that moment and probably the most wholesome thing that will ever happened to her.
There was King's Landing with her overcrowded streets and old buildings. People yelling at eachother and sellers offering their products to all those who'd be a potential costumer, dogs running through people's legs and that particular smell that not even in thousand years was going to be part of Highgarden and yet, with all that, there was something fascinating about the city that lady Rose Tyrell couldn't explain but she liked it.
"We're close," she said to both boys, finally looking at them "and I swear to the Seven that if you don't behave right now, the one who will enjoy eating you alive it'll be me. So, you're going to start acting like humans again before I count three. Do you understand me?"
Both brothers nodded and she smiled, looking at the city again. Yes, it was good to be there again and the tourney, even when organised by Amos Bolton, seemed to be quite interesting and the opportunity to see something new.
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As Rose imagined, Queen Heavenerys was busy but she sent a note to her apologizing and saying that she was going to be there with her as soon as she could. Fortunately, she wasn't alone because the one who was accompanying her was Lucilla Bolton, cousin of Heavenerys husband, and a very dear friend of hers. One that she knew since they were toddlers.
Both ladies were walking through the land where tents were disposed and while around them bards were singing and jugglers were animating people. Sun was starting to get down and around them bonfires were being prepared. Some kids passed running next to both girls.
"It's the wedding anniversary, so, of course he forced us to come. My father could never say no to that bastard," Lady Lucilla, or Lucy, was saying "Did you hear the expression 'you can do better'? Well, Hev could do better. What did she see in my cousin? The hell! Don't tell her I said this! She's really happy with him and even when I hate to admit it, she's everything to him. But still doesn't change the fact that he's my cousin and I hate that we're here for him."
"Well, we're here for everything but him, especially my father, if that helps," Rose said "the shows, the musicians, the tourney... That kind of things are always nice. And the fucking dragons, I'm not going to lie."
She could see the excitement on her friend's eyes at the mention of it as a clear evidence that it was a mutual feeling. Only a very bitter person couldn't be interested in dragons. Westeros was under the Targaryen's dynasty so their animals were part of them.
Not far from where both ladies were, Lord Bolton was showing his friend one of the most interesting tents around. It was made to keep safe some of the weapons that were going to be used during the tourney.
"I thought you would appreciate this," he said looking around. "Some of these cost the money we paid for them and luckily, some lords will be willing to buy them."
"You do know how to do business, Amos."
"What can I say, Stark, apart from 'you're right?' but not everything is business and money. I have something for you," Lord Bolton walked to a table where a leather box was laying on it. "Open it."
When James did it, inside found a new and expensive bow and six arrows that only looking at them you could say that were made to kill. He picked up one them and examined closed. There was a wolf engraved on them and so was on the bow.
"This is magnificent," James finally said. "Amos, thank you."
"No need. I imagined you'd like it and I'm glad you're accepting it. Do you want to try them?"
"I don't think it's wise considering it's getting dark very quickly, but tomorrow morning I will. I saw the targets coming here."
"Everything here was made to be enjoyable, so whenever you want, you can use it."
Both Northern men were leaving the tent when Amos snorted when he saw his cousin Lucilla and Rose outside the tent, even when they didn't see him.
"You're fucking lucky that your family is just you and your brothers, James, you don't know what it is to deal with members you don't like?"
"Do you really think I don't know about that? Just me and my brothers? Are you sure?"
"I'm sorry. I'm really sorry, I didn't mean that. I was referring to another kind unpleasant relatives. The other part of the Boltons that doesn't act like such and the best example is right there," he said pointing at the red haired girl "She's such a pain in the ass for someone so small."
"Who is she?" James asked finally looking in the same direction as Amos.
"My cousin Lu..."
"The other one."
Amos frowned "You don't know who she is? That's Lady Rose Tyrell, firstborn of the fucker of Lord Samwell Tyrell," he answered. "The thorny rose of Highgarden. If you get too close, she'll prick you."
It was in that moment that Rose turned around and saw him and for few seconds they stared at eachother. But it was when she smiled that James doubted about his friends words. It couldn't be true, not when she was looking at him like that.
And if it was true, the beauty of the rose worth the thorn in the wolf's paw.
NEXT
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